John Fogarty
Looking at the Allianz Football Division 1 table, you could be led to believe that this weekend’s finale is the culmination of the most competitive top flight in years.
How wrong you could be, but the facts are so misleading that it’s entirely pardonable.
And here are those hoodwinking statistics. Compared to this stage of the competition last year, the margin from top to bottom has been cut from 10 to six points.
Bar table-toppers Kerry who are guaranteed the first semi-final spot, the remaining five places of any significance in the eight-team division are up for grabs.
Cork, Mayo and Dublin currently hold the slots to join Kerry in the last four with Down alongside the latter two on six points.
Armagh, Donegal and Laois look to be the teams fighting it out to avoid the drop with Donegal-Armagh game in Ballybofey a real winner-takes-all affair.
Exciting stuff, so, coming our way on Sunday. Or so you might think.
Here’s the real statistic: the average margin between teams has extended to six points from four last year.
Another one? Okay, more goals were scored at this stage in last year’s campaign – 48 to the 38 currently.
Don’t be taken in, people – this league has major issues.
The fact relegation-threatened Armagh could qualify for the semi-finals were they to win and other results to go their way indicates just that.
They are, in a way, caught between two stools right now, something Dublin manager Pat Gilroy warned of when this league system was first mooted last year.
He rightly described it as “a farce” and indeed it’s quite preposterous that a team like Gilroy’s side, Mayo or Down, who have all fluctuated between brilliant and beastly, could qualify for the semi-finals having lost more than they’ve won.
Yet that possibility is still alive as this deeply flawed league structure hardly rewards the best. Sure, Kerry sit pretty at the top but the next best are a long way behind.
Second-placed Cork, who should secure a semi-final place regardless of their result against Dublin in Páirc UíChaoimh on Sunday, have had a disappointing campaign.
They disposed of Down and Laois with little bother but their other four performances, including the late win over Mayo last day out, left a lot to be desired.
Cork are the prime example of how a strong team can maximise the generous amount of slack this league format affords them.
Dublin, as much as Gilroy was disappointed with their carry-on against Mayo last Saturday, is in the same boat.
It’s like what Jack O’Connor said in his book about Kerry defender Tom O’Sullivan going for 201 points in his Leaving Cert because he needed 200. Outside of Kerry, the best teams are doing little more than what is required of them.
Doesn’t say much for the league, does it, when a team guilty of showing insolence towards it is not punished for it?
Teams have also been forced to weigh up their options of when to stick and when to twist because of the volume of games in March.
In no way are we suggesting any manager went out to lose a game but there would have been occasions when they risked a result either because of the system’s generosity or the amount of games coming their way in quick succession.
At the start of the campaign, this writer warned that there were problems ahead. The format change has de-incentivised the competition. Awarding half the division with a semi-final spot was hardly conducive to competition and it’s proven so.
The reasons for introducing the format were financial as they were structural. It was an attempt to avoid dead rubbers. Although the Laois game is one for Kerry, technically they are none this weekend when two teams facing one another have nothing to fight for.
Yet there were none last year’s final round aside from Dublin going to Galway knowing they had a league final spot in the bag.
No, this format was conjured up primarily because of money and the gate receipts from league semi-finals.
That will likely come back to bite them in the rear as the integrity of the league suffers as a result.
The GAA supporter is no fool. If they get even a sniff that their team’s approach to a competition is indifferent they will turn away in their droves.
Already, they see the guts of the league (four games) shoehorned into March just so that the league semi-finals are accommodated and their results reflecting as much.
But what are teams supposed to do when they are told they can lose one here and lose one there and get away with it?
These league semi-final money-spinners will add to the GAA coffers but as they have so often discovered, a short-term gain could develop into a long-term pain.
Excitement and entertainment can so often been mistaken for quality and competition. This weekend is living proof of it.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/uNow0IRtCzQ/post.aspx
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